Boundary Crossings: Transitions from Childhood to Adulthood

In this paper I argue that the boundary between childhood and adulthood is very difficult to define. Notably, it is blurred by the ambiguous period of 'youth'. I therefore draw upon Beck's theoretical work on individualisation and the life-course, which has been influential in youth research in sociology and youth studies, to provide a framework for reviewing some of the processes through which young people make the transition from childhood to adulthood. In the conclusion I reflect on the need to explore the importance of the different spaces implicit in young people's transitions, and the interconnections between them. I also highlight how distinctions between the states of childhood and adulthood are not clear-cut, nor are transitions a one-off or one-way process. Rather I draw attention to the way that changes associated with growing up may or may not be connected, and may occur simultaneously, serially or not at all. Finally, I point out the limitations of normative models of transition given the way that other social differences such as gender, class and sexuality intersect with the categories children and youth.     

Pleistocene Water Crossings and Adaptive Flexibility Within the Homo Genus

Pleistocene water crossings, long thought to be an innovation of Homo sapiens, may extend beyond our species to encompass Middle and Early Pleistocene Homo. However, it remains unclear how water crossings differed among hominin populations, the extent to which Homo sapiens are uniquely flexible in these adaptive behaviors, and how the tempo and scale of water crossings played out in different regions. I apply the adaptive flexibility hypothesis, derived from cognitive ecology, to model the global data and address these questions. Water-crossing behaviors appear to have emerged among different regional hominin populations in similar ecologies, initially representing nonstrategic range expansion. However, an increasing readiness to form connections with novel environments allowed some H. sapiens populations to eventually push water crossings to new extremes, moving out of sight of land, making return crossings to maintain social ties and build viable founder populations, and dramatically shifting subsistence and lithic provisioning strategies to meet the challenges of variable ecological settings.

     

四渡赤水研究中几个问题的探讨

多年以来,关于中央红军长征中四渡赤水的研究,学术界对有些问题还不够明确。为此,本文拟作进一步的探讨。一、正确理解毛泽东的人生“得意之笔”据聂荣臻回忆,陈毅曾经说过毛泽东把四渡赤水看作是人生的“得意之笔”。①由于历史语境和“四渡赤水”这个词汇本身具有的模糊性,人们对毛泽东所说的“四渡赤水”产生了误解,以为就是当年红军的四次渡过赤水河,没有想到毛泽东指的是第四次渡赤水,这就使得对四渡赤水的研究从一开始就产生了误区。当年的毛泽东不可能把四渡赤水作为一个完整的战役向陈毅介绍。也就是说当年的毛泽东不可能把红军在长…     

食味地中海

全世界有3种膳食结构模式——西方、东方和地中海式。这其中最健康最具风情的,莫过于地中海美食子. 地中海美食泛指希腊、意大利、西班牙、法国南部等地处地中海沿岸的欧洲各国的美食品种,以海鲜为主,加上健康的橄榄油,